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It feels slow. Slower than it should at 56, which is fast for an assault. Part of that is because of the LRMs -- heat isn't usually a problem if I slow down here and there, but there is literally nothing I can do with this thing except find somewhere, sit, and launch LRMs.

And those 1620 rounds? Those don't last long. It's 27 flights, roughly, which gives me just under two minutes worth of LRM fire before I'm dry. Often I wind up missing targets more than I hit them, and it's generally safe to assume I will get mobbed and killed off the moment I get away from the safety of the rest of the lance. (Inevitable, because they zoom ahead!) The TAG helps, though, and once or twice I've managed to chase off an ECM light with my LRMs. When it all comes together, though, and the stars align and I wind up with teammates who'll hang onto targets for me? I wind up doing 800 + damage, and I'm not even that good with LRMs yet. (Yes, LRMs do take skill. Mostly in terms of timing and picking your targets.)

One of my favourite things to do, though, is find a target who's standing still, not locking onto them, and firing my LRMs at them. They don't (I think) get a ping, but they do get hit with close to sixty LRMs. >:D

My current thinking is to suggest that you have (at minimum) about one minute's worth of ammunition, if not two. Two seems unlikely to get burned through unless you're boating, most of the time, but your mileage will vary.

Oh man. Okay, I don't have a mechlab thing set up, but, I managed to fit a CTF-1x with:

2x PPC
2x Medium Pulse Lasers
1x Large Pulse Laser

340 XL engine

And it barrels along (speed-tweaked) at around 88 kph.

And it's _very heat forgiving_ so long as I don't alpha too frequently and occasionally drop down to just the large pulse laser while I cool off.

Running with it feels AMAZING. It likes all ranges, but the PPC thing helps encourage me to keep moving and avoid engaging 'too close' while still staying within about 150m of opponents. I think I have a new favourite.

It is, basically, just an upgraded + tweaked stock CTF-3D, making use of Endo Steel, Double Heat Sinks, and an up-sized engine to improve the heat profile, trade the LBX-10 for a regular AC-10, and add in a Beagle Active Probe. (You can swap that out for a straight-up AMS system, if you want.)

The additional speed + jump jets makes this thing boing-tastic, which may or may not improve my mobility any, but does make me extremely cool. Note that the rear armour has been downgraded in favour of frontal armour, but not entirely -- I find that I can shrug off one, sometimes two, mid-size LRM volleys on my back if I remain on the move.

This build does tempt me, however, into getting up close and perosnal to the detriment of my survival -- charging after a damaged 'mech to finish it off in the midst of the enemy lance FEELS like the right thing to do, but it never is... one of the best ways I've found to play this machine is to hang slightly back, keep an eye out for enemy mechs that seem slightly isolated, and then move in to help isolate them/hit them in the back. But I find that I really need to be positioned fairly centrally or on a nearby flank, and getting that sorted out is trickydifficult.

This experimental (read: entirely untested and prone to backfiring) loadout is designed to annoy anyone who looks at me for more than a fraction of a second. This is achieved via dual UAC/5 and a pair of medium lasers that are more useless than 40k`s laspistol.
It also has a physics-defyingly improbable amount of ammo (kidding, kidding, it`s just 6 tons, but the physics is still a tad iffy) and a few heatsinks because my OCD makes the sight of empty slots physically painful.
Since I have yet to try it out in any way I don`t know how much it sucks, but given the ammo-hoggy test runs, I`d say the answer is "A LOT".

I am trying to build a med-to-long range ballistics boat, but i kinda fail at fitting it. I've picked the JM6-DD as the obvious base, and i am trying to fit 4x AC5 on it, which does fit but then there's practically no space for ammo and armour...

Well the DD comes with an XL Engine and Ferro Fibrous armour installed, that's why it is a lot more expensive than the other two variants. Then there's the issue of all the Jagermechs being completely underarmoured in their stock loadouts, especially for the usage of an XL engine - bear in mind that you are basically a walking center torso. The thing is, if you want to strap 4 AC5's on there you will have to buy an XL engine anyway so you might as well go for the DD. Strip out the Ferro Fibrous though and replace it with Endo Steel.

You don't need C.A.S.E. when you're using an XL, if your shoulder goes you're dead anyway. What this gets you is almost max armour, 7 tons of ammo and an AMS on top which is always nice to have with LRM's making their way back into the game. But just for the record, I'd never advise anyone to go for a build like that but that's just my opinion - I'm not a huge fan of boats.

Apart from the inherent tactical suicide of using an XL on anything, the biggest problem I see is that you have a ton of alpha, but only about 30 volleys in total. You need to be either very conservative with your fire (and since you don`t have any sort of backup, that`s not an option) or very good aim (best achieved via close-range brawling). I would also second getting rid of the CASE and getting an AMS instead, since your loadout is quite vulnerable to getting TAGged by some fuckwit circlestrafing in a Jenner.

Apart from that, ditch the ferro (it`s barely any use and eats slots like mad) and grab an endo instead, much better weight distribution and fewer pointless slots. If you can find a bit of weight to shed try to fit some more armour onto your torsos, as the XL is very vulnerable, especially from behind.

Also, have you looked into replacing the 4X AC/5 with 2X UAC/5? you get roughly equal DPS and better weight, plus you can fit 2X med. lasers if the guns jam or you run out of ammo.

Well i've never used a balistics build, so i am quite clueless about weapons etc. I just know they are annoying as fuck when used on you, because of the constant explosions blinding you and shaking your whole shit all over the place. So far i have two mechas - A med-laser/SRM hunchback and a full-LRM stalker.

I don't want to be a glass canon, but i thought since the mech is heavy class it would be fine with 4x ACs, using it's inherited HP/Armour from the weight class.
If you say that 2x UAC5 gets roughly the same DPS but i could also fit in some secondary weapon system as a backup would be good. If i go for that build, should i pick the S version then, since i'll prolly ditch the XL engine?

4 AC/2 with enough ammo to last you the entire match. If you manage to use it all and hit about 85% of the time you end up with over 1000 damage. Three heatsinks give you two seconds sustained fire before overheating.

The rapid fire nature of AC/2s gives you excellent suppression capabilities even at extreme ranges. Don't use chain fire unless you have a macro though, the cooldown for chain fire is significantly lower than the AC/2's and will lower your damage output.

Rapid fire is a double-edged sword though, because it requires you to spend more time out of cover to deal damage compared to high alpha snipers.

Engines have an internal HS slot (varies with engine size, small ones have none, the biggest ones have up to 3) that takes any kind of heatsink ;)

Also, the AC/2 has a rather high speed (2000 m/s IIRC) and you can swap a few ammo bins for an AMS + 1 AMS ammo if you REALLY don`t want to get smashed by a Cat/Light double team with TAGs.

EDIT: as for the UAC build, the heat is no worse than the AC/2 build - you only use the mediums in case the ammo runs dry or the guns jam up. One thing I ought to point out about the AC/2 is that the cockpit shake is quite low, so it doesn`t have as much suppression ability as a heavier AC.

Feel free to ditch 2 of the med. lasers, just make sure you have one on either torso, in case it gets blown up. I`m still in two minds about 4x AC/2 vs. 2x UAC/5. The 4x2 has more sustain (75 ammo/ton vs. 25) and doesn`t jam, but 2x5 offers less heat gain for equal (-ish) DPS and has more utility thanks to higher knockback and shake. In the end, it depends upon your playstyle above all.

What bugs me is that if i end up running with 2 ACs, what's the point in getting a jaggermech, aka the ballistics boat?
I mean, i started with the idea of running a tightly oriented mech, which is capable of fielding 4+ of a given type of weapon system (like my laser/srm hunchback or my lololrms stalker with 2xmeds for backup). If i end up running around with 2x ACs and 2x lasers, basically any given mecha can pull that off, probably even better than the jagger?

If you are looking to boat a high number of ACs, in the Jager basically your only option is four AC2. Four AC5 is far too heavy. You have to start sacrificing either armour, ammo, or most likely speed. Significantly low armour or low ammo means it doesn't matter how many big cannons you are bringing, you'll either be blown away or run out of ammo before you contribute anything.

You could do it with plenty of armour and ammo if you commit to going incredibly slowly, but it isn't particularly fun to have a brawling assault bearing down on you and you just have to deal with it because you don't have the speed to leave the fight or reach the safety of teammates.

That's my take on it, slightly slower than Tora's for more heat efficiency. Still just about fast enough to retreat from brawlers. In my opinion the strength of Jagers is more in the lack of arm actuators (so AC20s fit in there) and the high hardpoints, not the number of hardpoints. Double AC20 or gauss are the best builds the Jagers have (alongside 4AC2).

Quick edit since I only just read the other posts again- Ultras do compete for the 4AC2 Dakka jagers role, but their lower range and slower projectile means they have to be ~200m closer to the target than the AC2 alternative, and it puts them right in the perfect range to be torn apart by PPC boats. I also just hate the jamming. If I get my mech blown up I want it to be because I did something stupid and payed, or I was last man standing on my team, not because I lost a dice role with my guns.

How would you tweak those builds to add some backup power, like 2 meds or something? Lower some armour or engine power?

You wouldn't. You started off by wanting to boat four AC5's, a lot of people gave you advice on all kinds of boats UAC5/AC2/AC20/Gauss and now you want to tweak those boats to fit mediums lasers? If you want a boat, go with one of the loadouts people have suggested but if you want to have backup weaponry you shouldn't consider building a boat. If you don't feel confident piloting one there's no shame in that, get to know the game and play something that suits you better, but sacrificing, say two tons of ammo on a boat for two medium lasers gains you nothing. The lasers will rarely come into play but you will miss those two tons of ammo a lot.

Swaps the 280 of the regular AC40 jager for a 255 and 2 medium lasers. More potential damage, and less ammo reliant. However, you'll find the lower movement speed and lower twist speed will be really noticeable. You won't be able to close the distance to the 270m range you need as easily, and you'll be easier to put down by accurate snipers. By that last part I mean because after they put one or two alphas into your side torso, it'll be armourless and you're screwed. With the relatively small engine your twist will be quite slow, so turning to face the sniper, getting a shot off, and then turning to hide the open side will be nigh impossible. Consider it the AC40 build with training wheels. When you're not experienced with torso twisting to shield parts, and you aren't accurate with the AC20, the build is just plain better. Once you're accurate and experienced the medium lasers will be redundant and the faster twisty build is better.